§ MR. MARKHAM (Nottinghamshire, Mansfield)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, seeing that Clause 12 of the Police Regulations for the granting of licences to motor omnibuses provides that every omnibus must be so geared that its normal highest speed does not exceed twelve miles an hour, he will say why the police have licensed omnibuses which habitaully travel at sixteen miles per hour; and whether this Regulation has ever been enforced in a single case.
§ *MR. HERBERT SAMUELThe hon. Member appears to have misunderstood the words "normal highest speed" in the Regulation from which he quotes. They refer to the omnibus when running in its highest gear at a normal number of engine revolutions per minute. The majority of omnibuses are so designed that when running at a normal engine speed their rate of progression approximates closely to the legal maximum of twelve miles per hour. Motor omnibuses in London do not habitually travel at sixteen miles per hour.